


Love Is Asking to Be Loved

by SunshineMoon (CaptainSpace)



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/F, always weird seeing the dub surnames in the tags haha, no shock death twists just the show's plot happening in the background
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 08:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16909887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainSpace/pseuds/SunshineMoon
Summary: Dragon Ball GT, but Pan and Bra are dating; snippets from throughout as their relationship develops.





	Love Is Asking to Be Loved

“Sorry about that!” Thinking nothing of it, Pan floated back across the police barricade and landed in front of her date. “Let’s go!”

 

“Uh...y-yeah…” His head swung manically back and forth between her and the vista of destruction she’d enacted on the attempted bank robbery across the road. “I’d love to...I just...I just remembered I have a thing—can’t believe I forgot—a very important—yeah—uh—don’t wait up—have a good day!” He fled back down the street, devolving into incoherency.

 

She gave a long sigh.  _ Again…? _

 

Every time this happened. Or something like this. Why’d she even keep hoping one of these guys would find what she could do cool?

 

“What’s gotcha down?”

 

Pan glanced over her shoulder—it was Bra threading her way through the crowd, sometimes just a waving hand visible past the bustling adults.

 

Bra was the child of the two scariest people on Earth, so it did well to treat her nicely. But Pan really did like her, and she could definitely use a good friend right now.

 

She gave a shrug as they finally came face-to-face. “I don’t know...maybe this whole dating thing isn’t for me.” She added out of the corner of her mouth, “or maybe I really  _ am  _ not old enough.”

 

“Aw, babe…” Bra hugged her for a second, then stepped back. “Let’s get snacks and talk about it. My treat.”

 

“Course it’s your treat,” Pan muttered, grinning a little. “You guys have, like, all the money.”

 

 

* * *

 

Sitting by the diner’s window, they happily slurped their milkshakes in silence for a bit—well, other than Pan’s pauses to explain that she wouldn’t normally get such a childish thing, but if Bra was going to have one she might as  _ well _ .

 

“So…” Bra set her glass down, leaning across the table. “The same thing happened?”

 

Pan sank into her chair. “The same thing happened,” she grumped.

 

“I’m telling ya, it’s not your fault. It’s their stupid attitudes. You’re just not like how most guys want girls to be.”

 

“So maybe I  _ shouldn’t  _ be like I—”

 

“ _ No! _ ” They both jumped, neither expecting the sound of Bra’s fists slamming the table. After a moment, she sat back down. “...I think you’re really cool, anyway. I wish I was that tough.”   
  


Pan smiled. “Thanks. But I still don’t know what to do...”

 

Bra nodded, looking tentative. “Well, hey...I can’t tell you what’s right for you. Maybe you need to be more careful and find an understanding one. Maybe you are, you know, what you said.” She didn’t dare say ‘too young’ directly with Pan in this mood. “And hey, maybe guys aren’t right for you. Try dating girls, or,” and her heart skipped a beat and she very quickly looked off to the side, “or whatever.”

 

Pan sat up, curious. “...I can do that?”

 

“Sure you can.” Bra regained her composure, but kept looking out the window. “You’ll...find people who don’t think so, but it’s totally normal.”

 

“...huh.” Pan stared into her empty glass, the leather cushions feeling enormous suddenly, like she could fall between them and be lost forever. She’d never heard this before. But Bra was very smart, and very in touch. If she said something was cool, it was cool.

 

Ten, fifteen seconds ticked by.

 

Slowly, Pan got up. “I, uh...I should prob’ly get going. I heard Grampa was causing some kinda trouble again, I should see what that’s about. I’ll think about it. Maybe I can ask out one of the girls in my class, I guess. I dunno. Thanks.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Well, see ya round!”

 

Bra sat alone for a while, replaying the conversation in her head. Then quite without warning she rocked forward, slamming her forehead into the table with a crash that sent plates tumbling in surprise three rows down. “ _ Pan, you dumbass!” _

 

 

* * *

 

“Just please, let us work!” With a final shove, Bulma left Pan fuming on the grass outside the central Capsule Corp hangar.

 

“Fine, whatever!” Pan shouted at the closed door. “I don’t need your stupid space adventure anyway!”

 

This was a lie. She needed the space adventure very much.

 

Bra, returning home after a pleasant day on the town, was not expecting to see Pan again so soon, much less in this kind of mood. “Hey...you okay?”

 

“No! I’m not!” Pan threw her hands in the air, stomping around in little circles. “ _ Somebody  _ used some kinda extra-special Dragon Balls to make Grampa a kid again and now those Dragon Balls are scattered across  _ space  _ and if we don’t get ‘em back in a year the Earth’s gonna  _ blow up  _ and worst of all  _ they won’t let me on the space trip! _ ”

 

Bra nodded along with increasing speed, trying to keep up with the deluge of new information. “...and  _ that’s  _ the worst part?”

 

“I’m coping!”

 

“So...what are you going to do?”

 

Pan glared over at the hangar. “I’m  _ gonna  _ get on that spaceship.”

 

“O-Oh.”

 

“What, don’t you believe in me either?”

 

“I do. I just...never mind. Good luck.” Bra wrung her hands behind her back.  _ I thought I’d have all the time I needed to figure out what to say. _

 

“All right, if I go in all polite an’ offer to help your mom…” Pan had her hand on the doorhandle when she felt Bra grip her other. “Huh?”

 

“Hey.” Bra smiled nervously. “I really hope you make it. They’ll need someone as strong as you.”

 

“Aw…”

 

“So go. Save the world. And if you do…” She inhaled sharply, and went for it. “L-Let’s go on a date. When you get back.”

 

Pan froze.

 

Both hands dropped to her sides.

 

Her head lead the rest of her in a one-eighty.

 

“Okay.”

 

 

* * *

 

“This is a disaster…” Trunks rested his head on one of the spaceship’s bubble-windows, watching the stars drift by. “Now I have to babysit two of you.”

 

“Hey, I don’t look like it right now, but I’m a grown-up!” Goku protested.

 

“No,” Trunks said solemnly, “you’re Goku.”

 

Pan, meanwhile, bounced heedlessly from wall to wall. “Let’s get on and find those Dragon Balls!”  _ This is gonna be the best! A real space adventure! _

 

_ And...when we get back… _

 

_ Aaaah stupid Bra! Saying something like that right when we’re leaving. And being so...cool, and smart, and stylish...aaaaa _

 

 

* * *

 

Pan swooped down behind one of Baby’s huge metal columns, glancing around to make sure she was hidden.  _ This is too much! Those ‘ultimate’ Dragon Balls are gone and the Earth’s gonna blow...what did we go through all that for?  _ She had more immediate concerns, though; she was one of maybe five people on Baby’s New Planet Plant not under the parasite’s control, and she’d only just escaped from—

 

She caught the telltale flash of light just in time, head twitching to the side and avoiding by inches the ki beam that drilled its way through the pillar behind her.

 

She’d already had to fight both her parents today. She shouldn’t have had room to hurt anymore, even if it was the girl she liked. But it did hurt. Bra had the same malicious expression as all the others. She was herself, and she was Baby. She’d have all her memories; she’d know exactly who Pan was. She wouldn’t care.

 

Pan clenched her fists. “I-I can’t let you get away. You’ll bring the whole planet after me.”

 

“Get away?” Bra held out both hands, approaching slowly. “There’s no need for that.”

 

“Stay back!”

 

“Don’t leave, don’t come closer...what  _ is  _ it you want?” They were face to face now, the outstretched fingers tightening around Pan’s neck. “You can’t hurt m—” She convulsed at a sudden impact, eyes snapping wide for a moment before rolling back.

 

Pan withdrew her fist, gently setting Bra down against the pillar and checking her stomach for bruising. “I’m sorry. Earlier I couldn’t make myself do that, with mom and dad.”

 

Drying her eyes she stood up, hearing a distant roar. Over there, across the city, what was...it looked like a giant golden monster, rampaging mindlessly. But the energy coming from it... _ Grampa? How’d he become that thing? _

 

“Okay. Okay.” She tried to convince herself what she had in mind was a good idea. “I can get through to him. And that massive power can beat Baby. Yeah. Okay.” Right before taking off, she looked back at the sleeping girl behind her. “I  _ will  _ save you. I promise this isn’t the end.”

 

And it wasn’t. It was unavoidably the end for Earth, but thanks to the new planet Baby had graciously provided, not the end for humanity. So it was that the girls found themselves reunited under an alien sky, waiting for the far-off Namekians to restore their home, soaring along with Bra doing her best not to blush as the smaller girl easily carried her through the air. She collected herself, though, in time to point to the half-ruined skeleton of the tower that had served as Baby’s headquarters. “There!”

 

“Isn’t that a bit creepy?” Pan joked.

 

“I want to be high up.”

 

They landed on the uppermost spire, dangling their legs over the edge and trying to think of something to say.

 

Pan noticed Bra’s hand laying on the metal between them. Nervously, she put hers on top of it, holding tight.

 

That said enough.

 

Soon they were looking at each other rather than the sky. Then they were holding both hands. And then Bra leaned in with sudden confidence, kissing Pan ever so gently and ever so briefly.

 

Pan gasped but smiled uncontrollably. “I think...I like girls,” she mumbled.

 

Bra laughed. “Wow, you think?”

 

Getting it together, Pan faced forward again, but kept one hand held in hers. “My first date’s on an alien planet. I wanted an adventure…” She shuffled closer. “Hey. I’m really sorry about your dad.”

 

“It’s okay.” Bra rested her head on Pan’s shoulder. “Well, it’s not  _ okay _ . But you’re helping me not think about it. So, thank you.” She put on a cheerful face. “They said Namek’s dragon gives you three wishes, though. So he’s coming back.”

 

“I’m glad…” Pan grimaced suddenly. “Even if he’s the one I’m most scared of telling.”

 

“And what am I being told?” The girls leapt back at the gruff voice that heralded Vegeta rising through the air before them, stopping level with the ledge they sat on.

 

“Daaad!” Bra moaned. “Don’t startle me! I could’ve fallen off, you...you…” She sniffed, grabbing his arm. “Welcome back.”

 

“It’s good to be myself again.” He looked between the two of them for a moment. “So, did you mean to tell me that after all your posturing over your popularity, you’ve finally found someone?”

 

“ _ Dad! _ ”

 

Pan seemed stunned. “This is  _ your  _ first date too?”

 

“It took me ages to figure out what I wanted!” Bra said. “And I’ve...liked you for a while...and didn’t know what to say.”

 

Vegeta landed next to them, looking wistful. “Well, be glad I’m not the man I once was. My daughter, and a descendant of Kakarot...what a thought. But no, I’m glad. Maybe the real saiyan I can see in her will rub off on you.”

 

Well, it was true Pan enjoyed a scrap and dressed boyishly and all of that, and Bra was none of those things, but… “Maybe opposites just attract,” she said, turning away.

 

“Hey!” Pan’s cry caught their attention, and their gaze followed her pointing finger towards the sky...where a familiar blue-green disc once again sat. She hopped up and hovered a little above the tower, stretching her arm further as if to reach out and grab the Earth in her hand. “I wanna…” She found her voice shaking. “I wanna go home.”

 

 

* * *

 

It hadn’t been that long since then. It felt like years. When the world is on the brink so constantly time seems to stretch.

 

It was near midnight; they sat on the roof of Chi-Chi and—on the roof of Chi-Chi’s house. Finding high places to be alone had sort of become their thing. Bra sat just behind Pan with both arms around her shoulders, while Pan stared numbly down at the ragged little gi in her hands.

 

“Your grandpa was really special.”

 

“Yeah.” He wasn’t coming back. This one was final. For now, at least, there weren’t any more menaces to the universe. But equally, there was no Goku, there were no Dragon Balls. Whatever happened from now on, all any of them had was each other.

 

“If you need to be alone, just tell me.”

 

“No!” A hand shot up, squeezing on top of one of Bra’s. “No. Please. Stay with me.”

 

“It’s okay. Of course I will.” Bra kissed the back of her neck. “As long as you need.”

 

“Thanks.” Shuffling away slightly, Pan held up the gi. “If something happens, it’s down to us. So, I’m gonna get as strong as he was. Stronger!”

 

“Big goal, but you know I’d love to see it.” There were advantages, Bra had found, to having a girlfriend who could lift with one hand the house of anyone who crossed you.

 

Pan sprang to her feet, raising her fist towards the moon. “Just watch. This time next year I’ll be a Super Saiyan!”

 

Bra giggled. “You’ve got time.”

 

She did. They both did; time almost uncountable. Years upon years together, watching new lives take the place of the old. Pan did get stronger, and that training paid off more than a few times. Then before they knew it, they were the old ones, still a tomboy and a fashionista, and Pan was sitting with her thirtieth consecutive Tenkaichi Budokai championship belt on her lap and her wife sleeping against her shoulder, watching her great-great-nephews fight it out for the junior title from the front row.

 

And for just a moment she thought she heard a voice,  _ that  _ voice:  _ “I’m proud of you.” _

 

Obviously just hearing things in her old age. But she was proud of herself, too. For the thousandth time, she looked to the clear skies. This was the world they had saved, and she wasn’t planning on leaving it just yet. It was truly beautiful.


End file.
